Stephen Smith
, ContributorI blog about the politics and economics of urbanismOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Ministry of NIMBYs is more like it!

Talk about man-bites-dog: London's Ministry of Sound, perhaps the world's most famous nightclub, has gone on an all-out offensive against new residential skyscrapers near its home at Elephant & Castle, in Southwark. Their latest target is a 41-story tower in an area which, along with the City of London across the Thames, has a newfound fondness for tall towers, including the recently built Strata SE1 (silly name: "the Razor"). Why? Noise! Not that they're afraid of noise from the towers – rather, they fear that noise complaints from the towers' new inhabitants will mean an end to the venerable club.

Nearly two years have passed since the scheme first appeared on a planning committee agenda – but a series of objections raised by the neighbouring Ministry of Sound club (plus the occasional administrative bungle) have conspired to delay the process.

Tuesday night's meeting at 160 Tooley Street was one of the most keenly anticipated in recent times: how would the committee reconcile the developer's insistence that the 335 new homes could exist happily alongside the 20-year-old nightclub with the Ministry of Sound's claim that its closure would be inevitable should the tower be constructed?

The scheme has been the subject of a 25,000-signature petition and a high-profile leafleting and advertising campaign mounted by the nightclub which claims its licence is in jeopardy if new homes are built in close proximity. [...]

The committee has yet to clarify the detailed reasons for refusal, which include concerns about noise and a reduction in office space.

The Ministry of Sound lost its first round against a different 22-story tower project nearby, but they are apparently appealing that decision.

One Southwark councillor promised back in June that "legislation is being brought forward to stop people moving in and then complaining about existing uses," but if that's true, it didn't come in time to save this project. It's impossible to know why exactly the councillors ruled against the Elephant & Castle tower, but it seems that all is not well in the land of sillily-named starchitecture.